Pakistan 134 for 8 (Rizwan 38, Fakhar 33, Southee 2-19, Sodhi 2-22) beat New Zealand 92 (Phillips 26, Allen 22, Iftikhar 3-24, Nawaz 2-18) by 42 runs

After four crushing losses, Pakistan defended 134 to take the final T20I against New Zealand by 42 runs and keep the series scoreline to 4-1.

Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi at the toss reckoned that on a used Christchurch surface spin was likely to play a role. He was proved right as Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz and Usama Mir combined to pick six wickets to bundle New Zealand out for 92, their second-lowest total on home soil.

Batting first, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman got 30s but most of the Pakistan batters suffered on a two-paced track to reach 134 for 8 in their 20 overs.

New Zealand started the chase brightly, but the Pakistan spinners orchestrated a middle-overs collapse. Iftikhar led the way with 3 for 24, while Nawaz and Mir picked up frugal two-wicket hauls each as New Zealand were bowled out in 17.2 overs.

Once it got clear that the surface was aiding spin, Afridi went on an all-out spin squeeze. With the required rate climbing, Will Young tried to break the shackles by looking to slog sweep Nawaz. His attempt only reached as far as Iftikhar at deep backward square leg, who completed the catch on the second attempt.

The day went from bad to worse for Mark Chapman. He dropped Babar Azam twice in the first innings, and was run out for 1. This was before Iftikhar ended Tim Seifert's difficult innings of 19. He went for a reverse sweep to a straight ball, missed and was trapped right in front, with Pakistan's review confirming the ball would have smashed into the middle pole.

Mir then had Mitchell Santner caught and bowled while Iftikhar removed Matt Henry and Ish Sodhi in the same over as New Zealand collapsed from 53 for 2 to 72 for 8 in the space of 32 balls.